We are family
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Greeting
Greeting
Good Morning Family
If you’re new, guest, visiting…Welcome. We’re Glad You’re Here to Worship Christ with us this morning.
My name is Rob. I’m one of the ELDERS here at Hillside.
Introduction
Introduction
It’s an exciting time for us right now as a church family. We’re learning some new things, rekindling some old things, strengthening some things we already do. But we have a purpose and a vision for the future. We have a direction.
Three areas of HBC Cultural Growth.
Three areas of HBC Cultural Growth.
Prayer, Stewardship, Missional
Coming at this with a clear biblical understanding that What we do is dictated by who we believe we are.
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
So our understanding of and belief about who we are directly affects what we do individually and and what we do as a body and family.
Only by having a clear picture of our identity will we be able to grow into a family that prays, understands stewardship, and joins God everyday on his mission.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
We are a new Creation!
We are a new Creation!
This is what Baptism symbolizes.
Old man is dead and buried.
And we are raised as a new creation to walk in new ways with him.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Baptismal Identity - picture of who we are as this new creation.
Baptismal Identity - picture of who we are as this new creation.
Just like the video outlined, Baptismal Identity...
We are God’s Family
We are children of God who love one another as a family.
We are Jesus’ Servants
We are servants of Jesus, our Lord, and we serve Him by serving others.
We are the Spirit’s Missionaries.
We are sent ones empowered by the Spirit to show and share Jesus to others.
For the next three weeks we’ll dive into each of these as we rediscover or rekindle who we are.
For the next three weeks we’ll dive into each of these as we rediscover or rekindle who we are.
In the name of the Father...
In the name of the Father...
We are children of God who love one another as a family.
We are children of God who love one another as a family.
Today: If we are children of God, and we who believe are, then the only reasonable outcome is that we love one another like family.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
John starts with this command to love one another, then he tells us why.
He says we are supposed to love one another because love is from God.
What exactly does that mean, that love is “from God”.
And is there something about this statement that should cause me to want to obey the first part, to love one another?
John goes on, “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God”.
There’s an emphasis in this verse on this phrase, “born of God”.
This “born of God” is literally to be fathered by God.
John is saying to other believers, “we have to love one another because that’s what it looks like to be fathered by God”.
So it is this being born of God that should cause us to love one another.
And John has placed a lot of emphasis in this letter already on this love of God and being born of God.
Look at the beginning of chapter three.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
This love, as John understands it is amazing and extravagant.
He emphasizes the greatness of the love of God in this sentence.
John understood the love of God to be something special.
When he wrote his gospel account he always referred to himself as the one who Jesus loved.
This love is not new to him and yet it still grips him and there’s emotion behind this statement.
The love of the Father is Great.
He bestowed it on us.
Nothing that we did made God decide to give us his love.
In fact, if we were banking on our work or something about us to somehow bring us into a right relationship with God, then we are missing it!
If we were to get what we deserve it would be what...
Wyatt, what do we deserve?
DEATH and punishment that lasts forever.
Sometimes we can get caught up in life, busyness, work, parenting, kids hockey games, fishing, church activities, etc.
And we can lose sight of the greatness of this love.
Why is it so great?
Because we deserve death. We deserve to pay for our crimes. We deserve the death that we’ve asked for.
By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
And God made us his Children!!!
This should seem a little crazy.
This should seem too good to be true.
And what makes it great is that it’s not too good to be true. It is true. It is real.
And what makes it great is that it’s not too good to be true. It is true. It is real.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
All we have to do is believe. That’s it!
After the multiple finger-wagging moments of rebellion against the Creator of the universe his great answer is to give us the right to become his kids!
And yet somehow it’s easy to lose sight of it.
Easy to forget or get distracted from it.
Easy to forget we’re adopted into the most royal family in existence.
Maybe we haven’t gotten distracted from the adoption...
Perhaps we get distracted from how great the adoption actually is.
how big of a deal it is
Sometimes we just lose sight of who we were, like Israel forgetting about what happened in Egypt.
“Adoption into the family of God is the highest privilege the gospel has to offer.” J.I. Packer
Let’s take today, right now, to be reminded of it.
Show Video
Show Video
She didn’t do anything.
She’d been there for 3 years and yet knew vividly where she’d come from.
The pink room they set up for her didn’t cause her to forget the past.
Remembering the past caused her to be overwhelmed by the love she had been shown.
When we have a right view of God...
Holy, Righteous, Perfect, Completely Good.
And a right view of the Sinners in the hands of an angry God.
How much more then???
How much greater and more magnified is our adoption
than even this sweet little girl.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
AND SUCH WE ARE!
Having been shown this magnitude of undeserved love
Having been shown this magnitude of undeserved love
by God
by God
Shouldn’t the only natural reaction to that be to show this same love to one another?
Shouldn’t the only natural reaction to that be to show this same love to one another?
If we truly believe we’re children of God, then shouldn’t we love as we have been loved?
Throughout the new testament this is set up as a natural cause and effect.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
“This I command you, that you love one another.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,
and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you;
Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
And we end with the last verse from our text this morning!
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
This is what it looks like.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;
not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
I pray that as we move forward,
further into this new vision for HBC...
That we not ever forget who we are.
Every time we forget who we are, we will not live out who God has made us to be.